Division of Criminal Justice Files Over
900 Cases for Second Straight Year, Including
Major Increases in Priority AreasCorruption
Cases Up 9 %; Gangs & Organized Crime
Up 48 %; Major Crimes Up 7%

TRENTON
– Attorney General Anne Milgram and
Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni
announced that the Division of Criminal Justice
achieved major increases in 2009 in the number
of criminal cases charged by indictment or
accusation by its Corruption Bureau, Gangs
& Organized Crime Bureau, and Major Crimes
Bureau.

The
Division of Criminal Justice charged a total
of 920 cases in 2009, exceeding 900 for the
second straight year.

“Once
again we substantially increased the cases
we charged in three priority areas, namely
rooting out public corruption, fighting street
gangs and organized crime, and targeting those
who commit financial fraud, particularly those
who prey on vulnerable investors and homeowners,”
said Attorney General Milgram. “Our
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit also increased
its cases.”

The
Corruption Bureau obtained indictments charging
three New Jersey assemblymen, an Essex County
freeholder, two former Atlantic City council
members and other public officials. It sent
two former mayors to prison for five years
each, and took a guilty plea from a third
former mayor calling for a minimum sentence
of five years in prison without parole.

“We
charged and resolved important cases this
year, from indictments charging ballot fraud
in a New Jersey Senate campaign in Essex County
and a mayoral primary in Atlantic City, to
the success of our Gangs & Organized Crime
Bureau in securing lengthy prison sentences
for leaders of street gangs and narcotics
rings,” Milgram said.

“By
indicting three state assemblymen and securing
prison sentences for three former mayors,
we sent a strong message that we will not
tolerate officials who betray the public and
use their offices for personal gain or illicit
activities,’’ Milgram added.

The
Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau sent a
leader of the violent Nine Trey Gangsters
set of the Bloods to prison for 70 years;
obtained life sentences for two leaders of
a South Jersey drug ring; indicted an alleged
pimp and six associates who ran a major human
trafficking and prostitution ring in Jersey
City; indicted 12 men for illegally trafficking
guns later recovered by police in connection
with crimes in New Jersey; and indicted 35
inmates for illegally possessing cell phones
in prisons.

The
Major Crimes Bureau sent a man to prison for
13 years for stealing $2.9 million through
mortgage and investment scams; indicted four
defendants for stealing over $1 million by
using stolen identities to obtain mortgages
and credit; indicted a father and son in a
$4.5 million mortgage fraud; and indicted
four men who stole $435,000 from the state
by fraudulently obtaining tax refunds.

The
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit filed charges
in major cases, including indictments and
guilty pleas involving 24 defendants in Essex
County who engaged in a scheme to fraudulently
bill Medicaid for HIV/AIDS drugs and other
expensive medications, and the takedown of
a major criminal narcotics network in Hudson
County that distributed thousands of black
market OxyContin and Percocet pills.

The
Division charged 920 cases this year, compared
to 966 in 2008, 658 in 2007, and 594 in 2006.
CeaseFire program cases, which are handled
by deputy attorneys general embedded in the
Camden and Essex County Prosecutors’
Offices, declined from 117 in 2008 to 39 in
2009 as staffing was cut, cases charged in
2008 moved to trial, and more cases were handled
by the county prosecutors. Staff cuts also
impacted the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor,
which charged 100 cases compared to 156 in
2008. However, the Medicaid Fraud Control
Unit in OIFP increased its cases to 27 in
2009, from 25 in 2008.

Director
Gramiccioni noted that the Division charged
920 cases despite the net loss in 2009 of
19 attorneys and detectives (8 deputy attorneys
general and 11 detectives) and the requirement
that all staff take five unpaid furlough days.
Cases are up 26 percent over 2005, when there
were 38 more attorneys and 21 more detectives.
There were 162 attorneys and 217 detectives
in January 2006; there are 124 attorneys and
196 detectives now.

“For
the second straight year, we charged well
over 900 cases, and we did it with fewer people
and fewer working days due to continued attrition,
the state hiring freeze and five mandatory
furlough days,” said Director Gramiccioni.
“Through the diligence of our staff,
we are bringing more and higher quality cases
in priority areas including corruption, gangs,
financial crimes and Medicaid fraud. We are
truly maximizing our resources to protect
the people of New Jersey and serve their best
interests.”

“I
commend the outstanding work of all of our
deputy attorneys general, detectives, civil
investigators, analysts and support staff,”
Gramiccioni added. “Frequently they
acted in partnership with the New Jersey State
Police and other law enforcement and government
agencies.”

Corruption
Bureau

The
Corruption Bureau charged and resolved a number
of important cases, including these:

Assemblyman
Joseph Vas, the former mayor of Perth Amboy,
was named in two separate indictments that
charged him with, among other things, rigging
a public housing lottery so his personal
driver could buy an affordable home; stealing
approximately $5,000 in public funds to
pay for personal purchases and expenses;
illegally receiving $25,000 in home improvements
free of charge from a city vendor; making
illegal reimbursements to city employees
for political contributions; and conspiring
with another city vendor to have it pay
the $58,000 catering bill for a ribbon-cutting
at the city’s new public safety, court
and community complex.

Assemblyman
Anthony Chiappone and his wife, Diane, were
charged with funneling $8,000 in state paychecks
for legislative aides into their personal
and campaign accounts, and failing to report
the paychecks that went into the campaign
to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Former
state assemblyman Neil Cohen was charged
in July in a superseding indictment that
included a new count of possession of child
pornography for images of child pornography
he allegedly possessed on a computer in
his law office in Montclair. The indictment
repeated the counts of a prior indictment
charging Cohen with official misconduct
and possession, reproduction and distribution
of child pornography for allegedly using
computers in the 20th Legislative District
office to view child pornography and print
copies of child pornography that he left
around the office.

Former
Irvington mayor Michael Steele pleaded guilty
in September to rigging school district
contracts and taking thousands of dollars
in kickbacks as business administrator for
the Irvington Board of Education. The state
will recommend a seven-year prison sentence
including five years without possibility
of parole.

Former
Orange mayor and former state assemblyman
Mims Hackett Jr. was sentenced in January
to five years in state prison for fraudulently
billing the City of Orange for more than
$5,000 in travel expenses he never incurred.

In
July, the Division of Criminal Justice secured
an Appellate Division decision increasing
the sentence of former Carneys Point mayor
John “Mack” Lake from three
to five years in prison for attempting to
bribe an opponent to drop out of the 2006
township committee race.

Ten
people, including Essex County Freeholder
Samuel Gonzalez, were indicted for election
fraud in connection with absentee ballots
they collected and submitted as campaign
workers in the 2007 campaign of State Senator
Teresa Ruiz in the 29th Legislative District.

Atlantic
City Councilman Marty Small was indicted
with 13 other defendants on charges they
systematically conspired in a variety of
fraudulent messenger ballot schemes in the
2009 Democratic primary election for mayor
of Atlantic City.

Former
Atlantic City councilwoman Cassandra Clark
was indicted on charges she used a straw
purchaser to illegally purchase a property
being sold by the city for delinquent taxes.

John
P. Corea, the former director of the Hoboken
Parking Utility, was indicted on charges
he conspired to steal more than $600,000
in parking meter revenue that he split with
a contractor whose company he arranged to
hire to collect coins from city parking
meters.

Frank
Winters, former police chief for Clayton
Borough, was sentenced to seven years in
prison for stealing $180,000 from Mothers
Against Drunk Driving and $989 from his
police department.

Audrey
Walker Bey, a former employee of the Women,
Infants and Children nutrition program in
Newark, and two co-conspirators, were charged
with conspiring to steal hundreds of thousands
of dollars from the federally-funded WIC
program by using fraudulent vouchers.

Gangs
& Organized Crime Bureau

Operation
Red Light
– This investigation resulted in the
indictment of an alleged pimp, Allen “Prince”
Brown, and six associates charged with running
a human trafficking and prostitution ring
in Jersey City in which scores of women were
induced to use heroin and cocaine and were
beaten if they did not turn a daily quota
of tricks.

Operation
Pandora – In this case, 19
defendants were indicted in connection with
a Newark-based ring engaged in the wholesale
distribution of hundreds of thousands of narcotic
pills, including OxyContin. This year all
remaining defendants, including ringleader
Mohamed Hassanain, entered guilty pleas calling
for aggregate prison sentences in excess of
200 years and the forfeiture of millions of
dollars worth of property.

Operation
Nine Connect – Prosecutions
continued in this investigation into the statewide
criminal activities of the Nine Trey Gangsters
set of the Bloods Street Gang. Guilty pleas
have been obtained from approximately 48 of
the initial 59 defendants resulting in sentences
between five and 16 years in state prison.
One gang leader, Michael Smart, was tried
in January 2009, convicted and sentenced to
70 years in prison, including 40 years without
possibility of parole.

Operation
Centerfield – The leaders of
a large-scale cocaine, methamphetamine, prescription
pill and marijuana distribution ring in Camden
and Gloucester counties, Gary Maddox and Jason
McKinnon, were convicted at trial of racketeering
and leading a narcotics trafficking organization
and were each sentenced to life in prison
plus fifteen years.

Eugene
Braswell – Former senior state
corrections officer Eugene Braswell was indicted
with six others for allegedly trafficking
20 kilos of cocaine between Texas and New
Jersey.

Operation
Bloodbank – A spin-off investigation
from Operation Nine Connect led to the indictment
in July of 12 defendants charged as leaders
and recruiters in a scheme involving members
of the Nine Trey Gangsters to steal from banks
by cashing counterfeit payroll checks. The
defendants passed approximately $667,500 worth
of counterfeit checks, stealing $374,502 from
eight banks.

Cell
Phones in Prisons
– A state grand jury indicted 35 inmates
for the illegal possession of cell phones
in Northern State, East Jersey and South Woods
state prisons. Twenty-five of those indicted
are members or associates of criminal street
gangs.

David
Charles Murray – Murray was
sentenced to seven years in prison for selling
assault rifles, semi-automatic handguns and
sawed-off shotguns to an undercover State
Police detective.

Major
Crimes Bureau

State v. Spiro Pollatos
– This defendant was sentenced to 13
½ years in state prison, including
4 ½ years without possibility of parole,
in connection with a series of mortgage and
investment scams through which he stole approximately
$2.9 million, causing financial devastation
for at least 20 victims and having an adverse
impact on two financial institutions that
provided loans.

State v. Jeffrey Southard –
This Salem County investment broker was sentenced
to 15 years in prison, including five years
without possibility of parole, for defrauding
elderly clients in South Jersey out of $1.8
million through a Ponzi scheme.

State v. Yu Jane Chen et. al
– Four defendants were indicted for
stealing more than $1 million by utilizing
the identities of others to obtain mortgages,
lines of credit and credit cards.

State v. Gendel – Martin
and Seth Gendel and their companies, including
Casey Properties LLC, were indicted for allegedly
deceiving seven mortgage lenders into providing
$4.5 million in loans for purchases of 14
homes. The loans were used in a scheme in
which the defendants convinced investors to
buy urban properties at inflated prices, then
diverted loan funds for their personal use,
leaving behind investors facing foreclosure
and dilapidated homes.

State
v. Michael Rumore – This Lyndhurst
lawyer was sentenced to 15 years in prison
for stealing $4 million entrusted to him for
real estate closings, which he used to gamble
in Atlantic City.

Title Wave – Wesley
Starr, a former employee for the New Jersey
Motor Vehicle Commission, was indicted on
charges he sold hundreds of fraudulent motor
vehicle titles to various brokers and purchasers,
including 13 people who were also indicted.

State v. Albert Taylor –
A Virginia man who formerly ran a company
in Lincoln Park, N.J., that tested underground
storage tanks was indicted for defrauding
hundreds of clients by falsifying test results
to generate business for his tank removal
company.

State v. R.D. Secaucus, Crowne Plaza
–- The owner of the Crowne Plaza Hotel
in Secaucus was indicted for unlawfully discharging
sewage contaminated wastewater into the Hackensack
River.

State v. Mark Magee –
Magee was indicted for first-degree murder
and weapons charges in the shooting death
of Trump Taj Mahal shift manager Raymond Kot
inside the casino on May 27.

State v. John Hollins and Leslie Lawson
–- John Hollins, an alleged cocaine
dealer from Harrisburg, Pa., and his girlfriend
Leslie Lawson were indicted on a charge of
first-degree financial facilitation of criminal
activity for allegedly laundering more than
$2 million in drug proceeds in Atlantic City
casinos from 2004 to 2008.

State v. Daniel Goncalves
– A state grand jury indicted Goncalves
for theft of an Internet domain name in November,
making him the first person ever indicted
in the United States for such a crime.

Office
of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor

State
v. Sciarra, et al. – Seven
individuals and 11 corporations were indicted
in January 2009 in a $1.5 million workers’
compensation fraud scheme. The indictments
allege that the defendants lied on insurance
applications and failed to remit premiums
to the insurance companies, instead keeping
the money for themselves. They allegedly laundered
money so that the scheme would go undetected.
As a result, many people were left without
workers’ compensation insurance.

OIFP’s
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit

Operation
PharmScam – OIFP’s Medicaid
Fraud Control Unit indicted or obtained guilty
pleas from 24 defendants, including the owners
of a pharmacy and a clinic in Essex County,
in an ongoing investigation into schemes in
which prescriptions for HIV/AIDS drugs and
other expensive medications were bought from
Medicaid beneficiaries so that Medicaid could
be billed for drugs that were never dispensed.
The total fraud is estimated to have exceeded
$2.3 million. The clinic=s owner, Bryan X.
Chandler, and two pharmacy operators, Abdul
Bari and John Borges, each pleaded guilty
to health care claims fraud. Bari was sentenced
to three years in state prison and ordered
to pay $500,000 in fines and restitution.
Chandler and Borges face state prison sentences
of three to five years. The operation has
resulted in the seizure of over $4 million
in assets.

Operation
MedScam – Operation MedScam
led to the arrests in October of 13 people,
including doctors and pharmacists, in connection
with a major narcotics network in Hudson County
that distributed thousands of prescription
pain pills such as OxyContin and Percocet.
Search warrants were executed at multiple
locations and more than $1 million in assets
were seized.

State
v. New Jersey Mobile Dentist –
In a series of undercover operations conducted
in nursing homes by OIFP’s Medicaid
Fraud Control Unit, detectives documented
dentists not performing services that were
billed to Medicaid. As a result of the investigation,
four dentists employed by New Jersey Mobile
Dentist have pleaded guilty thus far. The
Medicaid program allegedly paid New Jersey
Mobile Dentist more than $1.3 million as a
result of fraudulent billing for those four
dentists.